Stimer with Archtop?

Dr. Hall

Has anyone tried using a Stimer with an archtop?
-Stefan

Pugs47

Hi Stephan,
I use a Stimer on a Draleon Samois 8000. The issue is the distance of the pick-up from the strings so I normally use a Fishman pre-amp then into a Roland Acoustic 60 with pretty good results. I'm trying to find materials to fabricate a bracket that will raise the Stimer up closer to the strings, for optimum performance. I haven't been successful in that venture yet. If you go to Youtube and type "Ernie"s Gypsy Jazz Jam" into the search box, there's a video about a year and a half old. I'm the third guy playing after the head. I'm using a very small, battery operated Vox amp. Not very good sound repro, but at about 4 minutes or so, you can hear my comping behind the viloin rather, with chords high on the neck. The sound there is more typical.
How's Cheesoslavia. I was Behind The Cheese Curtain for five years from 1988 through 1992, in Appleton.
Ernie

Dr. Hall

Hey Pugs47, thanks for the reply and the link. You're getting a nice almost Charlie Christian sound out of that Draleon with the Stimer, and through a battery powered amp--nice tone overall.

I was thinking of replacing the ultra-clean Armstrong slimbucker on my Heritage Eagle with a Stimer for a bit more of a driven vintage sound. I figured string height and mounting might be an issue, but with a little engineering anything is possible. I may investigate other neck-mount pickups too, like an old Rhythm Chief or Johnny Smith. We'll see.

Green Bay at the moment is great, but winter is coming . . . . At least there's cheese aplenty. Don't ask me for inside info about the Packers or Favre because I moved here in 2002 and don't follow American football. As far as jazz in this area goes, I've been pleasantly surprised. There are actually plenty of opportunities to play and a handful of really good musicians up here, though the opportunities to make much money at it are less than desireable. We all keep our day jobs and just enjoy playing music.

-Stefan

Pugs47

Stefan,
That's interesting because I had a blonde Heritage Eagle, with a slim, black, I guess Armstrong P/U at the time I lived in Appleton, 1991. I couldn't get a great sound out of it either and got rid of it!
I took a few lessons from a guy named Dave Sullivan, if I recall correctly. He was from Green Bay and taught at Lawrence. Great straight ahead player, but probably in his early 70s now.
There was at least a quasi scene there. Lawrence would usually bring in a couple of Jazz headliners every year.
Milwaukee was more happening with Manti Ellis especially, a Grant Green type player.
Keep those guitars humidified out there!
Ernie

djangology

isn't a Stimer usually "clipped" into the selmer style soundhole? how would you attach it to a archtop? are you saying you would cut off the clip and then just stick it to the archtop with putty?

i have to say though, I suspect that the Cigano CJ-10 guitar is perfect with a clip-on Stimer. has anyone actually tried it with that guitar?

Cuimean

I may be mistaken about this, but I think the Stimer reissues are designed for more of a clean sound. For a much cheaper alternative, you could go on eBay and grab a gold foil pick-up from an old Harmony or Silvertone. They were made by Rowe Industries, who also manufactured the DeArmond "guitar microphone" pick-ups. I had one taken off a junker Harmony H15 and mounted onto a cheapie archtop, and it sounds great. It has a nice mid-rangey bite and sounds great through a slightly overdriven amp. It also cleans up nicely when I back off the volume a bit.

badjazz

I second the gold foil harmony or silvertone pickups. The pickup on, say, a single pickup Harmony Rocket tend to actually be really really good pickups. Too bad the rest of those guitars are junk. I wouldn't feel bad at all about stealing one of those pickups for use on a better guitar.

icyhot

Hi there

I know this thread was posted a while ago, but some of the questions were unanswered and I was interested in a stimer with an archtop too. I found this video on you tube, so I know it can be done. Any idea how he does it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJKjVur7CBI